PTI’s Tireless Tirade

The latest development of the never-ending injustice against the PTI is that the party has called a multi-party conference of opposition on October 22 over the issue of alleged rigging of PML-N in NA-122 by-polls. The date is critically chosen to coincide with the Prime minister’s much-awaited meeting with President Obama in Washington. This time surprisingly Chaudhry Sarwar is PTI’s forerunner in the fight against the status quo, announcing to raise the matter of election rigging in Pakistan at an international level, claiming despite losing the NA-122 seat to Ayaz Sadiq that the PML-N cannot win any election without rigging.

The party alleges that it has gathered proof of large-scale vote transfer from Lahore’s constituency, NA-122. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has, however, rebuffed all allegations of vote shifting from the constituency. They maintain that ECP gave PTI and PML-N different electoral lists and each list provided to PTI had 200 less votes. A large number of ghost voters also surfaced during the investigation, that were entered at fake addresses.

While one must appreciate the party’s tenacity and perseverance to not give up in the pursuit for ‘truth’, it has by all measures gone too far.

PTI could have accepted the loss graciously, as they have much to celebrate. PTI leader Abdul Aleem Khan lost from a very narrow margin in a constituency, that is often termed as the ‘Throne of Lahore’ and gave the ruling party a run for their money. That is surely reason enough to look forward to the next election and bring about a real change in their constituencies in the mean time, so they can seal the deal come the next moment of truth. It must end the tiring blame game and play a proactive role in the Parliament as too much water has passed under the bridge to take these allegations seriously.